wifferdill

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English

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Alternative forms

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Noun

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wifferdill (plural wifferdills)

  1. (aviation) An elaborate, multiaxis aerobatic manoeuvre, especially one in which an aircraft makes a series of very tight turns in order to reverse its direction of travel.
    • 2003, Dik Alan Daso, Doolittle: Aerospace Visionary, →ISBN, page 20:
      Doolittle executed a grand wifferdill—rapidly climbing to exchange airspeed for altitude—after completing the course, then a perfect landing.
    • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 24:
      When not breeding, they whirl in rings above the earth, dive for flies with gaping, froglike mouths, and perform whifferdales and rolls, glancing in and out of sight.